Brendan Ryan, Labour Party TD for Dublin Fingal, has welcomed the launch of a €15m fund that will see vacant local authority housing redeveloped and brought back into use as social housing. Ryan “Local authorities must submit their proposals for the funding by the 28th March. Minister for Housing Jan O’Sullivan, who has worked hard to alleviate the shortage of social housing, will then allocate the funding as soon as possible. The fund should see about 500 housing units that are now vacant, brought into use for families later this year.”

Ryan “Increasing the supply of social housing is a priority and needs to be accelerated. Minister Jan O’Sullivan is doing great work with limited resources and I support her in her work. One of the most frustrating elements of the past few years is seeing void or unoccupied housing stock lying boarded up for months and months at a time. It is so frustrating for families on waiting lists to see potential homes lie vacant for extended periods of time. This funding will go some way towards speeding up the process of fixing up vacant units and I will be writing to Fingal County Council to ensure they apply to the fund before the 28th of March.”